The prospect of a new console generation hasn’t excited me since the rumors first started. The games we have seem perfectly capable in what they need to do, and the consoles we have seem perfectly capable in what they need to do. Necessity breeds invention, but I don’t see a necessity for a PS4 or an Xbox1.

But a PS4 and an Xbox One are what we will be getting, and though I’m still not quite sure why we need new hardware, at least there’s something fun about new hardware. The hype, the energy, the discussions, all are quite entertaining and fun to participate in.

PS4 information came and went, and as a console it seems to fit the bill. But, I spent this last console generation with an Xbox360, mostly engorging myself on Halo and Gears of War, and with the quality of Halo 4 being what it is, and with the ending of Halo 4 promising an interesting take to the story come Halo 5, I’ve been hedging my bets on Microsoft showing something worth purchasing.

Microsoft didn’t do that.

To be fair, I’m not sure they were ever going to show me something I needed to buy. With some very few exceptions, my Xbox360 is nothing more than a Halo and Gears of War machine. All of my other gaming needs are sated by my PC. But I love the stories to both Halo and Gears of War, and I want to see how they’ll be continued.

That won’t change when the Xbox One comes out, but given what we know of the console as of now, I really don’t want one.

And unsurprisingly, it comes down to the Internet requirements.

I’ve always gotten a kind of inclusiveness vibe to consoles. “Come in and join the fun” they seem to say, and if someone can’t come in and join you, you can pack up your console and go to them. My Xbox360 doesn’t exclusively stay at my house. The same could be said of my Gamecube, Wii, Nintendo 64 (RIP), or Sega Genesis. Often times, I’d pack them up and go visit friends or relatives or what have you; the consoles could come with me and everyone was welcome to play.

That was what I found to be special and great about consoles, not their inherent lack of problems when it came to installing games or downloading drivers. Those things don’t bother me.

It was always the environment consoles breed. The cooperative play. The split screen. The sharing of controllers. The Laughs and cheers at those in the room with you.

I do not get that vibe with the Xbox One, and it’s made even more inherent with its need to be online.

The Xbox One doesn’t want to travel. It wants to stay in my place of residence, constantly connected to whatever Wifi I have. Its okay if my friends play it, but I must be there, and everything must be on its terms. It sneers at my older relatives who have nice TVs but no Internet connections; it laughs at my friends who have unreliable Internet connections because we are all poor and out of college with student loans to pay off.

It doesn’t laugh and enjoy and welcome those to play it like other consoles. Instead, it feels, well, dirty.

To quote Kotaku: “Once you [install] it, that game will then be linked to your Xbox Live account. ‘It sits on your harddrive and you have permission to play that game as long as you’d like,’ Harrison [of Microsoft] said.”

Permission. I have permission to play the game. Why, I have permission to play the game for “as long as [I’d] like!” I even have certain permissions about sharing the game with friends, and how lucky I am for that.

But when did I ever need permission? I’m the one who bought the console. I’m the one who bought the game.

Why must my gaming and living habits now fit around the console and not the other way around?

My Xbox360 is almost never connected to the Internet. I picked up Gears of War: Judgment yesterday, and I’ve been playing that with my brother on and off. It’s quite fun, and I don’t need to connect my Xbox360 to the Internet to play it. I put the game in, it boots up, and off we go.

Sometimes when I get bored, I’ll throw in Ninja Gaiden 2 and kill a bunch of nameless ninjas and monsters with a scythe that defies gravity. My Xbox360 will remain unconnected to the Internet.

Gears of War: Judgment has a multiplayer component, but I’ll never bother with it. I don’t purchase Gears of War games for the multiplayer. Ninja Gaiden 2 has no multiplayer component to it at all; it’s purely a single-player experience. But on the Xbox One, I’ll need to sign into the Internet and type in a code, install these games, and then make sure I have some kind of semi-regular connection to the Internet to play them.

And my gaming and living habits are now forced to fit around the console.

Microsoft can say what they want about the Xbox One, that it’s supposed to be more than a console; it’s now a home entertainment machine. It’s now the “go to” device in your house that can do everything you’d want. The catch, of course, is that it needs an Internet connection to be this kind of machine. To Microsoft, it’s seems like a worthwhile payoff.

But no matter how they spin the device, no matter how many extra bells and whistles it comes with that I’ll never use because I don’t need them and never asked for them, it all comes down to control. Controlling how the consumer uses Microsoft’s product, for it isn’t the consumer’s product this time around. The consumer only has permission.